Virabahu Dasa
Virabahu Dasa was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1952 and was raised in Maracaibo, Venezuela from the age of three. In 1972 he and a group of friends became committed followers of Srila Prabhupada in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital city, just on the basis of reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. A mutual friend brought these books from abroad about a year before the actual ISKCON devotees arrived to start a temple. By this time he had established a student Hare Krishna Club at Simon Bolivar University, where he regularly conducted well-received kirtans at the cafeteria with his guitar. As one of the founding members of ISKCON in that country Virabahu Dasa arranged for the Yoga Society he was attending to become the initial ISKCON outreach center in Venezuela. In 1973, traveling to the Los Angeles temple, he and his wife were among the first seven devotees from Venezuela that met Srila Prabhupada and took initiation from him. Virabahu Dasa was also a founding student of Simon Bolivar University and was elected by an overwhelming majority as the first representative of the students to the Board of Directors, his name being thus recorded in its history. Previously, during his life at school, he had always been on the Student Council, his classmates having consecutively elected him as their representative year after year. While still an engineering student he was employed as a private tutor and a high school teacher of chemistry at the Marist School in Caracas. During this time he was also a monitor at Simon Bolivar University and earned a scholarship up to the end of his studies in 1978 with a degree in chemical engineering. From 1975-1976 Virabahu Dasa was Caracas temple president, as well as from 1977-1979. In 1976 he joined the Spanish BBT American Division as a part-time translator and editor until 1979, when he began serving as chief translator and editor until 1991. Appointed to the GBC in 1990, Virabahu Dasa is zonal secretary for Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. He is co-zonal secretary for Argentina, Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, Caribbean, French Guiana, Guyana and Surinam. Past terms as an executive officer served by Virabahu Dasa include GBC chairman 1991-1992, GBC vice-chairman 1992-1993 and GBC chairman 1993-1994. He was Latin American RGB chairman 2006-2008 and continues as a member of that regional committee. Current GBC committee assignments include Srila Prabhupada Position Committee and the Guru Services Committee. Virabahu Dasa has been an initiating guru since 1985, administering to the spiritual needs of devotees in many parts of the world, but especially in Central and South America. His scholarly tendency has inspired him to complete the book The Guru and What Prabhupada Said: A Compilation and Analysis of Relevant Quotes about the Spiritual Master from the Teachings of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, for the edification of all those who read it. For the past 33 years the home base of operations to Virabahu Dasa has been New Dvaraka, ISKCON of Los Angeles. He has been married to Karta Devi Dasi since 1974.